julieo4 and arrowshooter,

The one clinic audiologist told me that my aid purchased at Costco a year ago is new. It does have a telecoil, and the Costco fitter paired it with my smartphone when I acquired one several months later. She told me that she knew there would be a mic to pair with the aid, and that was correct. The other clinic audi (who only tests hearing to evaluate for possible CI) was totally dismissive of Costco on all counts. I scored 55% on the Ci test, 5 points above the level where Medicare would pay for a CI. She told me to spend $6,000 on two aids, wait six months, and come back to see if my hearing would have degraded enough for a CI for my ear that hasn't heard much for decades, and then a new aid for my other ear--a total cost in less than a year of $9,000!

Costco aids are about half the cost of the same aid elsewhere. There are several options, depending on amount and type of loss. The aid I bought has a two-year guarantee against everything, including loss and damage. There is no written statement about subsequent appts. for adjustments, and I've never been told that I can't have an appt. when I've asked for one. The nearest Costco is only 60 miles away...half the distance of the CI clinic. The only thing that I can complain about is that the Costco phone system isn't set up to take messages, so you have to call back if it's busy.

If I ever find a place in this little town where there's an induction loop (not likely!), I'll try that out. During weekly sessions of our lecture group, I sit in the front row and have my mic handy if the speaker tends to wander away from the podium while showing PowerPoints. If the speaker stays close to the podium, I generally don't need the mic. The first day I had it, I left it on, sitting on the table in front of me, during the break and was surprised to hear several people talking to the speaker while I was in the restroom about 75 feet away--surprise! I wasn't able to understand, because there were many voices, (I have a great deal of distortion at all times), but I could hear voices if not words. Because of the distortion, I rely on speech reading along with what I hear.

As for music, I quit playing when my right ear went south because the recruitment literally made me sick and I wasn't able to hear others playing around me. For years, I didn't listen to music, but about 10 years ago I began to listen to classical and jazz that I knew well, filling in the missing parts in my mind. Since I went bilateral, the distortion is so dreadful that all higher instruments (flutes, trumpets, etc.) sound like kazoos. I went to a concert with the Air Force quintet...kazoos! Imagine that! After several years, I'm hoping that the recruitment will taper off, as it did with my right ear after many years. So far, this recruitment isn't quite as bad as it was for my right ear, but the distortion is very hard to learn to live with. I hear sounds, but I don't know what they are--the car engine, the dishwasher or washer, microwave, a faucet running...all sound the same, just pulsating rumbling noise. Part of that is the new tinnitus in my left ear, so when I walk a quarter mile to the mailbox along our gravel road, it constantly sounds as though there might be a car coming even though there seldom is. When a car does approach, it isn't much louder than the T! Strange world out there!

Next trick will be to take a deep breath and start what is likely to be weeks of effort to get Charter to display captions on more than one channel on our TV. I'll work on that after I finish all the fall chores, esp. gutter cleaning. The ship has sailed as far as finishing exterior painting this year!